Case Name :      Dilemma at Devil’s Den

Authors :           Kim Johnson, Allan Cohen

Source:              Babson College

Case ID:             BAB081

Discipline :        Social Enterprise

Case Length :    03 pages

Solution sample availability : YES

Plagiarism : NO (100% Original work)

This case deals primarily with ethics and the individual’s personal system and the way it affects his or her perceptions and actions. It also looks at rewards and punishments and their influence on behavior. Susan is a student employee at a campus snack bar who is caught between a wish to do what she thinks is right–take steps to stop food being taken off the premises that hasn’t been paid for–and fear of negative consequences if she takes such action. She would also like to see students work harder, finish what is assigned to them on the night shift, and be punished for stealing from the cash register. Almost all students have faced peer pressure to do things that violate their value systems. The case helps students to understand why they feel so much ambivalence, sometimes going along and sometimes setting limits. Some issues are ethical; others involve criminal behavior. Issues include sexual permissiveness and experimentation, drug use and dealing, cheating, trespassing, and stealing. The case also raises questions of a company’s ethics and responsibility for creating, or allowing, a climate that tolerates at best, and encourages at worst, illegal, criminal, or unethical behavior.